— Our story
We started with the fruit.
Then we looked at what was being thrown away.
Pailin produces some of the finest longan in Southeast Asia. In peak harvests, much of it doesn't reach a market — fruit goes unsold, prices for smallholder farmers collapse, and seeds (the hard black "dragon eye" inside every fruit) are discarded entirely.
PaiBloom began as a food-product venture: longan syrup, dried bites, herbal tea — direct ways to absorb that surplus and put more income back into farming households. As we worked the supply chain, we realised the seeds — the part nobody used — carry the most concentrated value in the fruit. Recent peer-reviewed research has demonstrated cosmetic-grade polyphenol extracts and an effective drinking-water coagulant aid, both derived from the seed.
We now run three connected workstreams from a single Pailin hub. The fruit feeds the food-product line. The seeds feed the cosmetic and water-aid lines. A digital and engagement layer connects sourcing, traceability, and communication across all of them. Three product families, one harvest, nothing wasted.
— How we got here
A short, honest chronology.
From a Cambodian household to Wageningen.
Alita Tithphit, growing up between Pailin's orchards and Phnom Penh's markets, brings the longan-waste problem to Wageningen. A food-technology student venture starts to take shape.
Lizzy Grant 2025 & Food Systems Innovation Challenge.
PaiBloom secures €6,000 in non-dilutive funding from StartHub Wageningen and the Wageningen Food Systems Innovation Challenge — initial validation that the food-product line is worth building.
What if the waste is the value?
Working through Pailin's supply chain, the team realises that the longan seeds — discarded entirely by processors — carry concentrated polyphenols and a usable polysaccharide. Peer-reviewed work from Chiang Mai (Hong-In et al., 2021/2022) and Phayao (Aunkham et al., 2026) anchors two new product lines.
BiSC-E + Ecotrophelia, in parallel.
PaiBloom enters the BiSC-E 2026 competition with the seed-valorisation case (cosmetic active + water-aid coagulant), and Ecotrophelia 2026 with the longan-pulp food product. Same venture, two competition entries, three product families.
Pilot in Pailin.
The next milestone is a small-scale processing pilot in Pailin Province, sourcing from a cooperative of smallholder growers and validating the cosmetic-line process end-to-end. Partners and a fifth team member (chemistry & cosmetic formulation) are welcome — see contact below.